[Mike Young]

Mike Young on February 8, 2007 at 11:40 am #12754

Athletes: The best quartermiler you have.

Scenario: He injures his hamstring in his season opener and is unable to do running for 2 weeks and sprinting for 5 weeks. This leaves him with 3 weeks of solid training prior to the biggest meet of the indoor season. He was in PR shape coming in to the first meet and has a solid fall and early winter training base. There are no facility or equipment related limitations and he is able to resume normal lifting programs after 2 weeks.

Things to consider:
*What would you focus on at various points of his return (speed, strength, flexibility, etc)?
*What would you do as alternative training when he is unable to sprint?
*Would you still attempt to run him in the big meet or would you restructure and focus on the outdoor season?

ELITETRACK Founder

[deroki]

deroki on February 9, 2007 at 12:33 am #62767

My 2 cents…

I'd initially focus on strength, say 3000-4000m of intensive tempo the first week back (week 1 of 3 before big meet). I'd also do speed drills after the tempo as an alternative to sprinting. The second week I'd drop the intensive tempo to about 1500 per session with speed endurance work (say 4-6 x 40m-60m) after the tempo. If the hamstring can handle the sprinting and the flexibility is as good as it was prior to the injury, then I'd say 'all systems go' for the big indoor meet. Otherwise, I'd refocus on the outdoor season. If he's had 3 weeks of normal lifting before he tries any sprinting, then you should be optimistic. The week before competition i'd have one session of 150s to give him confidence in his speed and his ability to open up without re-injuring the hamstring.

Good luck!

[RunnerMan]

RunnerMan on March 2, 2007 at 12:51 pm #62768

im surprised this scenario hasn't had 4billion replies…let alone one..lol anyone?

[Jay Turner]

Jay Turner on October 28, 2009 at 12:24 am #90740

This of course depends on the athlete, but generally I’d play it safe and focus on the outdoor season. The outdoor season is why we train in the first place, so even though he/she might be ready by the time your indoor championship meet arrives, I’d play it safe and continue to set him/her up for (hopefully) a monster PR outdoors.

I’d focus on IT for a few weeks to start, progressing from 80% on up. Once he’s/she’s at 90% with no limitations, it’s all systems go with the speed/explosive work.

If/when he/she is unable to sprint, I’d work on flexibility by doing lots of PNF stretching, lifting for power, and step up the Tempo work to keep fitness up.